The Debrief, 7/8/14

This week we look at Myanmar’s oppressed Muslim minority the Rohingya, Kiribati’s solution to relocate its population before the nation sinks into the ocean due to rising sea levels, Taiwan’s aboriginal tourism troubles and the latest on a gondola in Beitou, Taipei.

In recent years, Myanmar has quickly become yet another hopeful for peaceful transition from military rule into a democracy. The road away from shunned government has been joined by foreign investors, tourists, and journalists eager to take part in shaping a new nation. However, behind the veneer of shiny new Western trappings, abuses against ethnic minorities are intensifying…

The nation of Kiribati has in late May purchased land 1,200 miles away in Fiji, for relocating the 100,000 or so of its residents when rising sea levels drowns the Pacific island nation in as soon as 30 years time…

A group of students from the aboriginal issues civic group Indigenous Youth Front (原住民族青年陣線) paid the Bureau of Tourism a visit to voice their opposition against the Bureau’s promoting aboriginal festivals as tourist attractions…

On Thursday, the Taipei High Court declared invalid the environmental impact assessment by the Taipei City government that green-lighted the Beitou Gondola project. In other words, the court’s decision has effectively halted the project, pending further appeals….

(Feature photo of a meeting with the European Community Humanitarian Office in Rakhine State, Myanmar, by Christophe Reltien on Flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0)

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